I don't believe I have ever been this joyous. God has filled me up past the top, and the joy is spilling over the edges! A smile in constant on my face. Even as I type at 1:30AM. My stomach has the best butterflies, better than the butterflies I get when I talk to attractive men (I am trying to sound more like an adult, and I figured cute boys would not fit there... haha).
This past week is undescribable. I guess I could explain a little before I get into the unexplainable. Sunday morning I, along with about 40 students and 15 or so adults, headed to Farragut State Park in Northern Idaho for the first ever DeepWater summer camp. The campgrounds are nestled in the forrest at the southern part of the beautiful Lake Pend Orielle. This is our high school pastor's first summer camp with Bethany, and I am pretty much blown away.
We were blessed to have wonderful cooks, the Staggs, cooking gourmet food that I, the pickiest eater ever, can't fully apprieciate. Some of our meals included steak and potatoes, stuffed chicken breast, homemade breakfast burritos, biscuts and gravy, pancakes, eggs and sausage, briskett, and my favorite... HoneyNut Cheerios!! They worked so hard, and everyone was grateful!!! We also had 3 boats to take kids out tubing and wakeboarding. Along with skilled boat drivers [and crazy ones!!!], and a beyond awesome bus driver... who could turn a bus around easier than I can turn my little car around. We spent an entire day at Silverwood, riding the coolest coasters, and splashing around in the waterpark.
But all that awesome-ness is nothing compared to what went on inside of the students. Bethany has gone through a few different high school pastors over the past couple years... leaving the youth group separated and disconnected. Of course this is where God comes in. He blessed us with an amazing group of staff that just LOVE these kids. Each one of the staff members is completely different. An english teacher, a math teacher, a couple college students, a few baristas, some married, some just working. But it is obvious that God placed all of us together specifically for this group of students. Aaron and Alex put on the funniest set of skits I have ever seen at church. They played a couple wannabe Irish leprechuans: decked out in all green, even green hair! Their accents and crazy dialouge were hilarious! The kids absolutely loved it!! Caleb, a friend of George's, spoke so relevently to the kids. You could see his words stirring up the students hearts, and totally feel God working through the entire camp. Michael and the rest of the band led worship and it felt like the music spread beautifully through the enture camp. The small groups were alive. Students were opening up to each other and to their leaders... by the last night of camp, every social wall and group were broken down. I saw students talking and just enjoying each other's presence... even ones who had never spoken to each other before.
My favorite part though were the small groups. We met every day and talked about the message from the previous night. And on the final night, we took our tiki torches out and had one final debriefing. The girls in my group [as well as all the other students, I heard from the other leaders] took so much away from camp. And it was interesting because they each learned something totally different, and had completely different perspectives on the same things. In such a good way though!
We went to camp with a couple tight cliques, other random kids and friends thrown in, and a couple kids no one had even met. But we came back as ONE. I am so excited to be a part of what God is doing in the hearts of these kids.
"You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so
stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one
baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and
is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with
Oneness." -Ephesians 4:4-6
Otis